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Thank you for playing and I'm glad you have a fun time :)

To answer questions directly: you can create unlimited branches, though the passive decay of each branch increases depending on how far removed it is from the center, measured by the number of connections. For balancing reasons, nodes cost some food borrowed from the node it is coming from but spawn in with more food than was paid. This imbalance will quickly be redistributed back: kind of peculiar, even unintuitive, but the best "game feel" that I could find messing with stuff.

I spent quite a while visiting and revisiting the balancing of the game though never quite got it to a happy state. I eventually settled on making the game easier and leaning into the sandbox elements as a past jam I've done yielded a way too hard bullet hell--checked all the gameplay boxes but was brutal and required more than the typical 5-10 minutes peeps allot per game. It is near impossible in Parvescence to die after the, say, 45 second mark as food will likely reach the middle and sustain you for another 14 or so seconds if you have no non-core nodes; during this limbo you will also eventually get a second chance by increasingly likely luck to branch out and continue play.

That is quite the substantial compliment thank you!

There was a moment in the development process where a realization set in that I best mimic the Spore cell phase. This moment was followed by spending way too long for a jam trying to get blurred-out "colossals" to function in 2d unity to add depth to act as background elements.

Unfortunately, you hit the nail on the head for my biggest foible with my game, being the lack of overall content. I had hopes to do a similar zoom-out effect to Spore once reaching certain thresholds of progression, but alas a lot of the atmospheric elements would have needed to be reworked or at least heavily modified. The hope was that once zooming out enough you could see the edges of the petri dish with branching out and escaping being the win condition.

Insanely well done, I have no clue how you managed all this in such short time. I don't really see the connection with the theme, but you knocked everything else out of the stratosphere!! I truly don't have any critique; this is just a finished game. Also, loved the Fantastic Fist cameo at the end :)

I'm quite amazed by how much variety of card types, enemies and events there were. That said, this seems to come back to bite you as per the lack of a tutorial. That said I spent a decent bit of time sitting down and trying to learn it and found a fairly well-made strategic card game! Some instructions and a few visual flourishes to provide more direct feedback for when/why a fungus dies and you're set. Good work!

Honestly knocked it out of the park in all categories: the music and sound effects assisted the writing in setting a strong, consistent mood, the theme/becoming a zombie idea was implemented in a very unique way, and the art itself is phenomenal! The gameplay itself felt moderately limited, but considering how polished each minigame was paired with difficulty scaling via the timer, I stayed engaged throughout. I loved this, 5/5!!

Wowowow! So many positives across so many categories so well-deserved kudos. Critique wise, I was unaware of being able to fire the smaller chunks which resulted in the overwhelmingly screenshake-ridden whole head spamming. That being said, it is a pretty good sign when my only complaint is at the end of a lengthy chain of player decisions on my part. Outstanding work! 

Wonderful job with the mood: the music choice and passes clouds create a calm vibe with some hints of somberness that match the deteriorating lifespan of the tree. I wish you had a chance to get around to the other features you hoped for, but I commend the simply core gameplay loop and variety of tree artwork. Good work :)

I'm surprised by the sheer number of levels you made on top of a fairly sophisticated mechanic. I found myself discovering a new bug every other level, but thanks to the undo button it didn't impede my enjoyment of the game all too much. Good work in general, fantastic considering this is a Jam!

Really obscure yet well done idea! Takes a second to process the parallels between the overlays, but once it clicks its pure astonishment.

The graphics and song choice work really well together in conveying the late hearted tone. The graphics (especially the thumbnail) alone caught my eye. A concise concept but done in an enjoyable, great work!